INVESTIGADORES
MONTES CATO Juan Sebastian
artículos
Título:
The impact of labor flexibility on the Argentine telecomunications sector
Autor/es:
JUAN SEBASTIAN MONTES CATO
Revista:
Latin Americam Perspectives
Editorial:
Sage
Referencias:
Lugar: CALIFORNIA, USA; Año: 2004 vol. 31 p. 32 - 44
ISSN:
0094-582X
Resumen:
In 1989 Carlos Menemwas elected president of Argentina. He came from
a Peronist background, but after an initial failed experience with heterodox
economic policies he implemented a neoliberal model that included reduction
of trade barriers, governmental reform, privatization of state enterprises,
and a reorientation of productive capacity along market lines. While these
measures did put an end to hyperinflation and produce some economic
growth, the negative effects were soon evident: an enormous increase in
unemployment to almost 20 percent of the active population, 42 percent of
the population in poverty by the end of the 1990s, and a skewed distribution
of income. In this environment, workers organizations and employment
itself became precarious. This study examines how these changes affected
workers in the telecommunications sector and specifically how the introduction
of labor flexibility as a fundamental part of the restructuring of production
penetrated the most fundamental aspects of labor relations. After examining
the initial context of labor relations and the rise of labor flexibility as a
response to the problems arising from the change in the countrys economic
model, the article looks at the privatization process in the Empresa Nacional
de Telecomunicaciones (ENTel). After a reviewof the negotiations that led to
the collective labor agreement in 1975before the military dictatorship and
the economic crises that accompanied the return to civilian rule in the
1980sthe article analyzes the negotiations of the 1990s, which took place
in a radically transformed setting.
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